Website Security

New Page 1

Website Security

We know that you are concerned about the security of your financial information. We employ a number of security measures to protect that information.

We do not receive your credit card information. Your credit card information goes directly to our credit card processing company, Authorize.net, one of the largest and most trusted clearing companies in the market. From Authorize.net, we receive only confirmation of your payment amount, the type of credit card you used, and the last four digits of the credit card number.

Because we never receive your financial information, nothing is retained by us.

We employ secure socket technology on our website. Our SSL certificate is always up to date and active. Below are some answers to questions frequently asked about Secure Socket (SSL) technology.

Q: What is SSL?
A: Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a protocol for enabling data encryption on the Internet and for helping web site users confirm the owner of the web site. SSL is most commonly used to protect communications between web browsers and servers. However, it is increasingly used for server to server communications and for web-based applications.

Q: What is encryption and why are there different levels?
A: Encryption is a mathematical process of coding and decoding information. The number of bits (40-bit, 56-bit, 128-bit, 256-bit) tells you the size of the key. Like a longer password, a larger key has more possible combinations. When an encrypted session is established, the encryption level is determined by the capability of the web browser, SSL certificate, web server, and client computer operating system.

Q: How do web site visitors know if a web site is using SSL?
A: When a browser connects to a secure site it retrieves the site's SSL certificate and checks that it has not expired, that it has been issued by a Certificate Authority the browser trusts and that it is being used by the web site for which it has been issued. If it fails on any one of these checks the browser will display a warning to the end user. If it succeeds, several security indicators are built into modern browsers to indicate that SSL is enabled.

The beginning of the URL or web address changes from http:// to https://A padlock on the browser window changes from open to closed. In addition, a trust mark such as the RapidSSL site seal may be added to web pages on a secure site.

Q: What does browser recognition mean?
A: When a browser or operating system encounters an SSL certificate, it checks to make sure that the certificate is valid and trusted. An SSL certificate is trusted if it is signed by a “trusted” or pre-installed root certificate. If a browser that does not contain the root CA certificate used to issue the SSL certificate, a security warning will alert them.

We take security seriously and do all we can to protect your information.